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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

I'm very excited, honored and humbled to be part of this! Along with 15 other amazing authors, we have created at book to honor and support amandatoddlegacy.org.

The book is chock full of short stories and missing scenes from some of your favorite series! My contribution is an expanded missing scene from The Remembrance Trilogy... When I Met You. Here is a little taste.

Excerpt

Copyright 2013 ~ Kahlen Aymes * All rights reserved

~Julia

I
stopped to scan the snack bar. It was
nice, set up like a restaurant with wooden booths and tables. Ryan hadn’t said where to meet him and my eyes
scanned the room. I didn’t see him, but
the Student Union was large and there were a lot of students walking through
and hovering around tables and at the end of a few of the booths. I felt self-conscious walking around like a
moron, looking into booths and glancing around like I was lost. Many sets of curious eyes met mine while I
wandered around seeking the striking blue gaze of the man I met two hours
earlier.

I
caught sight of him quickly pushing in the front entrance doors, his eyes scanning
the room. He didn’t see me right away,
but was rapidly put upon by a group of others, a dark haired man and two women;
one with long blonde hair and one with cropped red locks. I was anxious and my feet wanted to move
toward him, but I hesitated as I watched the group engage him. His gorgeous face split into a grin and he
nodded, the blonde’s hand coming out to wrap around his bare forearm. He was wearing jeans and a long sleeved white
T-shirt, the cuffs shoved up to show strong muscle and golden skin, the blue
and green plaid shirt he wore over it, hung open. He looked hot; the layers doing nothing to
disguise the hard plains of his chest and stomach underneath the fine cotton
material or the broad shoulders. The
two women gazed at him in adoration and I wondered if he knew it. It was sort of ridiculous and I made a mental
note not to allow myself to act like an idiot around him. I took slow steps toward him to make sure he
saw me, but not wanting to interrupt the conversation with his friends.

He bent
slightly to listen to something the woman touching him said, but his eyes
continued their search for me. My heart
stopped when his eyes landed on mine and his lips lifted in the start of a
small smile. He was so breathtakingly handsome. This was a chance to just look at him. He put up his hand and spoke to the group
around him. Excusing himself, he walked
toward me with his backpack slung over his right shoulder. The two girls turned to watch him walk away, disappointment
and curiosity in their eyes as they checked me out.

“Hey.”
His soft voice washed over me warmly as he flashed a quick smile.

He was several
inches taller than me and I had to look up into his face. I wanted to bite my lip, hardly able to
contain the grin that was trying to break out across my mouth. “Hey.
How was class?”

“Boring
as hell. I can’t wait until all of this
basic shit is out of the way. Want to
find a place to sit and then I can get us something to eat?”

“Yeah. Did you want to invite your friends?”

Ryan
smiled again and shook his head.
“Nah.”

He motioned
toward an empty booth in the corner and I preceded him to it, flung my backpack
in and shoved it closer to the wall as I slid in. Ryan did the same across from
me. I watched him run a hand through his
hair.

“Did
you get the psych assignment read?” he asked.

“Ugh,”
I rolled my eyes and Ryan chuckled. “It
was so bad I couldn’t concentrate. I
think I’ll have to read it out loud to get through it.”

“That’s
what I’m afraid of. Maybe we can take
turns and then just fill each other in.”

I
smiled, leaning back against the booth, pleased at the prospect of studying
together. “Okay.”

We
started talking and time flew. We talked
about my parents’ divorce, his life growing up in Chicago, how his family
adopted his best friend when they were ten and my father’s latest criminal
case, both of us leaning in toward each other intently. I ate up his words and he was equally engaged
and truly interested in all I was telling him.
We fell into a rhythm that was easy, yet made my heart thud inside my
chest. I’d forgotten I was hungry until
my stomach rumbled loudly and Ryan chuckled.

My eyes
widened. “Wow. That’s embarrassing.”

“It’s
my fault! I promised you lunch and I’ve
completely failed.” He looked around at
the clock on the wall. It was ten
minutes to three. “The grill closes soon
so we’d better order. What would you
like?”

“I’m
not picky. Grilled chicken sandwich and
tea?”

“I’ll
be back.” I watched him walk away, and
couldn’t help but admire the easy grace with which he moved or the eyes that
followed his every move. I wondered
about the young woman he was speaking to before. Surely she wasn’t his girlfriend or she would
have joined us for lunch. In no time, I
had the sandwich, green tea and a pile of fries in front of me. Ryan had a
burger, onion rings and Coke. He shoved
the rings toward me. “I wasn’t sure if
you wanted fries or rings, so…”

I
pushed my fries in the middle of the table, too. “How ‘bout we share?”

Ryan
smiled and grabbed an onion ring. “I
hoped you’d say that.” He dipped it in
the ketchup I squirted along side and took a big bite. “How come I haven’t seen you around before?”